Owen Lee discusses where discrimination can occur during the recruitment process and examines unconscious bias and what you can do to avoid it.

Terms and Conditions for Events and Training

Employment Law Update Meetings
Our breakfast meetings are free to attend for local businesses. Our only condition is that if you book a place, you attend the meeting. If a place is booked at one of these meetings and the delegate fails to attend without giving at least 24 hours’ notice that he or she will not be attending, we reserve the right to charge £15 +VAT per delegate.

Seminars
Our charges are set out in the registration of this event, and are payable via a PayPal payment or an alternative payment (direct transfer/invoice). If you choose to pay via an alternative payment, full payment must be received at least 14 days prior to the event to secure your place. Failure to comply to these terms may result in your place being cancelled.

Mental Health and Paid for Training
Delegates are expected to attend the full sessions, fully partake in the training and completing any relevant assessment. Our charges are set out in the registration for these training sessions, and are payable via a PayPal payment or an alternative payment (direct transfer/invoice). If you choose to pay via an alternative payment, full payment must be received at least 14 days prior to the event to secure your place. Failure to comply to these terms may result in your place being cancelled.

Funded Training
Delegates are expected to attend all course sessions, fully partake in the training and complete all assignments with the time frames set out on the course. Failure to comply without reasonable cause may result in the delegate's company being charged the full cost of the training course plus any associated awarding body registration fees.

Purchases made from REED.co.uk:
Under this policy, you may cancel your purchase of the course within the period of 14 calendar days from the date on which the contract of purchase is concluded. This is called a "Cancellation Period". Note that if you redeem your voucher during the Cancellation Period, you expressly request us to begin providing the course materials and you acknowledge that you lose your right to cancel the purchase of the course and get any refund for it.
In case you decide to cancel your purchase of a course, it can be done in the following way:

By cancelling in writing via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by post to HR Champions Ltd, 43 Brunswick Road Gloucester GL1 1JS

If you cancel the purchase of a course within 14 calendar days as mentioned above, we will refund you for all payments made as a part of your purchase within 14 calendar days from the day we accept that you are entitled to a refund.

Marketing Consent
Unless you write/phone/or email us to opt out, you agree to photography and video recordings of the event/course to be taken to be used for our own promotional purposes.

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2.    DOCUMENT USE – Downloadable documents are standard and may require personalisation and in some cases deletions and additions to make them relevant to the situation to which they are being applied. We strongly recommend that they are used in conjunction with advice from a consultant at HR Champions Ltd. Employment Law is prone to change, and whilst we will endeavour to maintain the currency of all documents, we may temporarily make unavailable any documents that have become outdated. Once purchased, you may make a copy of any documents for your own future use. Documents remain available for download for five days. You will need to purchase the document again after this time if you have not made a copy. We recommend that you check the website regularly to ensure the documents are the latest version before re-use.

3.    DISCLAIMER AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY – Documents are designed to assist in managing HR issues and situations but do not constitute advice in their own right. HR Champions do not accept any liability for the outcome of any situations where downloaded documents are used without advice being sought from HR Champions Ltd and properly followed. Documents are editable and therefore HR Champions will not bear any responsibility for any alterations or amendments made to the documents after download.

4.    REFUNDS – Owing to the nature of the documents; the ease with which the content of a watermarked version could be copied and the fact that they are immediately useable after download, we do not offer any refunds. Please rely on the description of each document prior to downloading. If you are in any doubt that you have selected the correct document, please contact us by telephone or e-mail for assistance.

5.   CONTACT INFORMATION - HR Champions from time to time may send you emails of special offers or events.

As a provider of Leadership and Management training, discussion and debate around the qualities of great leaders is, as you might imagine, a regular occurrence for us. Leadership is a huge subject, with an almost limitless supply of articles, blogs and discussions available on the Internet and in industry magazines. It’s rightly the foundation of nearly all of the training we promote.

When we ask for examples of great leaders during training programmes, common responses include the likes of Winston Churchill, Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela. There are often parallels drawn between the worlds of business and sport with Alex Ferguson and Martin Johnson often cited for their distinctive leadership styles.

When it comes to really successful and growth businesses however, there is an aspect to leadership that is often overlooked; self-leadership.

Enabling self-leadership in itself takes great leadership to achieve, but businesses and organisations that encourage and facilitate their employees to be self-leaders can reap the benefits of staff who:

• Can make decisions
• Understand what their responsibilities are and recognise their accountability
• Are creative in problem solving and persist in the face of adversity
• Set their own objectives and achieve them

The key to self-leadership is being able to recognise where you are for any particular task or competency. Consider four main stages:

• Unconscious Incompetence – you’re unaware of a task and, understandably you don’t know how to accomplish it
• Conscious Incompetence – you recognise there’s a task to be done but you don’t know how to accomplish it
• Conscious Competence – you recognise the task and with some effort and concentration you can accomplish it
• Unconscious Competence – accomplishing the task is a breeze, you could do it one handed

It’s normal to be at different stages of competence for different tasks and being able to recognise when you need help is an appreciation of which stage you are at rather than a sign of failure. It’s also a indicator of self-leadership. It can sometimes be difficult for an employee to ask for support, which is why self-leadership must be understood and enabled from the very top of an organisation.

Organisational culture is where the differences lie between those businesses that see the value in enabling their employees to self-lead and those that persist with a tell and do attitude. The latter are likely to constantly spiral downward due to poor morale, inefficiency and a failure to keep hold of good employees.

Promoting a culture of self-leadership is something that progressive businesses actively develop as part of a growth strategy. We have a range of tools, systems and training packages that can enable self-leadership in your organisation. Call us to discover more on  01452 331331 or by e-mailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

'Part-time’, ‘temporary’ and ‘casual’ are phrases that tend to be commonly interchanged when referring to employees; however these terms mean different things from a legal standpoint so it’s important that employers are clear about the status of anyone who does work for them, and refers to it accurately. A worker’s status can drastically affect the rights they are entitled to, particularly around unfair dismissal and redundancy.

Here’s a brief guide to employee status with a synopsis of the rights of each. This is just top line so if you are in any doubt about the status of someone carrying out work on your behalf, you should contact us for further advice. 

Full-Time Permanent Employee: An employed member of staff who works a full working week (Usually 37.5 hours but can vary) and for whom you deduct PAYE tax and National Insurance through your payroll. They are entitled to paid holidays of at least 28 days including public holidays per year and statutory sick pay, maternity/paternity/adoption/parental/shared parental leave. Full employment rights accrue after two years’ service.
 
Part-Time Permanent Employee: The same as a full-time employee, including rights accrual, but will work for a reduced, set number of hours or days per week; e.g. 16 hours per week or 3 days per week. Holiday and some other benefits will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Temporary Employee: A member of staff employed for a set period usually less than 6 months. If a temporary worker is taken on as a permanent member of staff without a break in employment of at least 2 weeks, the period of temporary work will be accumulated with their permanent term when calculating rights. A temporary worker who has worked for you for more than 24 months will have accrued the same rights as a permanent employee.

Temporary Employee – Agency Employed: For very short term appointments of just a few weeks or even days, temporary staff are often taken on via an agency. In this situation, workers are usually employed by and paid by the staffing agency. Current legislation means that they have equal rights as employed staff for company facilities and benefits such as a staff canteen or crèche; and rights to equal pay after 12 weeks.

Fixed Term Contract – Fixed term contracts are usually used to employ staff to manage or cover a specific project or period of maternity leave. Once that project is complete the position for which the fixed term contract was instigated no longer exists and the employee is let go. The worker is employed by you for the period of the contract. Again, workers under fixed term contracts of more than 24 months will accrue full employee rights. This means that redundancy might be the more appropriate option to terminate the contract if employment exceeds 2 years.

Casual Workers – Casual workers are likely to be employed on a zero-hours contract. They are only given work when there is work to be done and therefore only paid when they have carried out any work. There is no obligation for an employer to provide work or for the worker to accept. Event catering is a good example of an industry that would use casual workers. Casual workers don’t have any rights although once again this changes if they worked continuously without a break in service for more than 24 months. In any documentation they should be referred to as workers and NOT employees.

Contractor – A contractor would be self-employed or employed through another company and provide services to you for a fee. You would not be responsible for paying a wage or salary nor any benefits. Instead you would pay in response to being invoiced. The relationship would be governed by Business Law rather than Employment Law. However, a contractor who works exclusively for one customer for an extended period of time might be considered to be an employee by the Inland Revenue and so subject to PAYE rules. If you’ve heard anything about IR35, this is what it relates to.

In all cases you should at the very least check that your employee’s contracts describe what you believe their status to be. If there is a discrepancy, don’t act without seeking advice as you may unwittingly be in breach of contractual terms. You can contact us for further advice or assistance regarding employee statuses and relevant contracts by telephone on 01452 331331 or by e-mailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

As employers, there are a set of rules and regulations that we must adhere to when dealing with our employees which we refer to as Employment Law. Whilst there is room for some interpretation in how the law is applied, most are reasonably black and white, and we can turn to case law to see how the less defined ones are judged. ACAS also publish a set of best practice guidelines which we are expected to adhere to.

Then there are the rules that we ought to be implementing if we want to be good employers. That is, the guidelines, and procedures we should apply if we want the people who we employ to perform in their jobs, remain in our employment and be happy and content whilst they are with us. This is what we really mean when we talk about HR.

Businesses should aspire to be really good at both. To run their organisations in line with legislation but also to create a great working environment.

Below we’ve put together a top five of each so you can see how you rank. It’s a bit of a crude yardstick to measure yourself against but it might just highlight where there is room for improvement in your own organisation.

Top 5 Must-Haves

1. Contracts of Employment: Strictly speaking, what you must provide is written terms of employment which could all be laid out in an offer letter. According to ACAS there are between 15 and 20 specific terms, depending on the type of employment, that you must include in the contract or at least reference to in another document such as a staff handbook. Additionally, the statement must be issued within 8 weeks of starting work and will become a day-one right from April 2020.
2. A safe and equitable working environment: This goes further than providing a workplace where employees are physically safe and is effectively solid application of The Equalities Act. Staff should also feel free from bullying, harassment and any sense of discomfort. Take an honest look around your team and spend a minute thinking about how each one feels about their workplace.
3. Right to Work Checks: You must have a process for checking employees’ validity to work in the UK. Even if you employ your twin brother, you must keep a record of their evidence.
4. Minimum wage: This should be straightforward, but we still hear stories where the National Minimum Wage isn’t paid. Sometimes travel time or extra time on site can mean the actual time spent ‘at work’ reduces the pay per hour to below the official minimum. Fines for getting this wrong can be quite damaging.
5. Maximum working hours: The working time directive can be opted out of, but you also need to bear in mind time for breaks and rest periods. These rules will also be affected by the employee’s age. Ultimately you have a duty of care towards your staff that means they don’t suffer because of their job.

6 and 7 would probably be Pension Auto Enrolment and Employers Liability insurance.

Top 5 Should-Haves

1. A Vision: You need to know what direction you want to take your business and as your employees will be part of your journey, they should all know it too. On a ship, even though the guy in the engine room can’t see the horizon, he still needs to know how much fuel you’ll need.
2. An effective on-boarding procedure: Starting out in a new job at a new employer is a huge event for most people. How the first few days, weeks and months play out will influence the rest of the time an employee spends with you. Get it right from day one.
3. Regular 1-2-1 meetings and appraisals: Few employees are such great self-leaders that they remain motivated and driven to do their jobs without any intervention from their boss. Regular reviews are an opportunity to measure performance, tackle problems early-on, and set new goals and targets to maintain motivation. This is probably the best place to include a word about channels of communication. These should be clear and effective with an opportunity to feed back.
4. A development plan: We expect that you’re constantly trying to grow your business. You should be trying to grow your employees too so that they are fully equipped with the right skills and knowledge to join you on your journey.
5. A positive culture: Culture is the word we probably use the most at HR Champions. How the people with an organisation behave and feel will be directly attributable to its culture. Take a step back and look inwardly on your business. What would an outsider’s opinion be of your culture?

Hopefully you’re not disappointed that bean bags and a pool table didn’t appear in the list. Yes, they are nice-to-haves it they fit your culture, but in fairness there is much to get right before you even think about introducing them.

If you managed to tick everything on both lists then you should be very proud of yourself. If there are any holes, a conversation with a member of the team at HR Champions might be a good next step for you. We are experienced at covering all the points here for our clients and can help you to integrate elements of both areas at the same time.

Call us on 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

By the time you read this the Rugby World Cup will have already kicked off in Japan. As with most large sporting events, we should give a little thought to its potential effect on staff attendance over the coming weeks. For example, fans might be inclined to take spontaneous, unauthorised absence to watch games or perhaps to recover from win celebrations.

To be fair though, the risk shouldn’t be too great. With the tournament hosted in the land of the rising sun, matches will be aired in the mornings in the UK; too early for most workers to be thinking about having a drink. Plus, the vast majority of the England and play-off matches are scheduled on the weekends; so unlikely to impact businesses operating Monday to Friday.

Fans of the other home nations however are not so lucky as some of their matches will be shown on weekday mornings and it’s funny how rugby seems to bring out people’s deep-seated patriotism. Plus of course, there are the other countries to consider, and fans of the sport itself. It might then, be a good idea to have a plan of action up your sleeve in case you’re faced with an unauthorised absence.

In agreeing a contract of employment, employees are committing to make themselves available for work at the times laid out within it. If a crucial game emerges or runs over time, an employee might be tempted to ‘throw a sickie’ if holiday time hasn’t been booked. However, employees who fail to attend work claiming to be ill can be at risk of disciplinary action up to and including dismissal if their employer has evidence that they are not actually sick.

There may be a temptation to let the odd “sickie” go and make allowances for the fact that there is a World Cup competition going on. After all, unless you have a sick-pay scheme, you don’t have to pay an employee for one day of sickness absence. The danger here however is that this sends the wrong message and could be seen as ‘custom and practice’, making it difficult to enforce any action on another occasion.

A better solution might be to agree a temporary flexible working policy, if your business can manage it, to allow the odd late start or extended lunch-break. Most of the weekday matches will be over quite early so provided a late start is logged and the time made back, there’s probably no harm done. Equally an hour tacked on to the beginning a lunch-hour should be long enough to catch the late-morning kick-offs. This approach will also score you points with your employees but be sure to apply any such policy consistently. You don’t want to be seen to be showing favouritism, or in extreme cases, risk a claim for discrimination.

If you're inclined to set up a TV at work to allow staff to watch games, remember that you'll need a TV licence for your business premises if you don't already have one.

If you’re not able to or don’t want to accommodate a flexible arrangement, then staff desperate to watch games will have to book holiday. If, like most companies you operate a first-come, first-served policy for holiday booking it’s vital that you apply the policy fairly and consistently. Again, you’ll want to avoid any claims of treating staff less favourably than others should you need to turn down a holiday request.

A clear and robust holiday and absence policy is a must for situations like this. Make sure that you are full versed in yours and that your employees understand it too so it can be your fallback position should the need arise.  

We’re here to help with employee issues like this and others, so if you need any additional support or advice, please get in touch on 01452 331331 or by e-mailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Media and its usage have evolved with breath-taking speed. Just a few years ago it was predominantly a platform for sharing pictures of your breakfast and your cat. These days Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are integral to many organisations’ marketing and communication strategies. At HR Champions for example, we use Whatsapp daily for group communications. Even the president of the United States chooses to make globally significant announcements as tweets.

UK Law, both criminal and employment, seems to have been slow to respond to social media developments, relying instead upon the application of existing legislation. “Bringing the company into disrepute” has tended to be the default stance for errant social posts that come to the attention of managers. The law is slowly catching up however and now terms such as cyber-bullying have become part of the lexicon.

In terms of policing social media usage in the workplace, for a number of years now we have been advocating the implementation of a robust Social Media Policy. This has become even pertinent as recent cases involving social media at work have resulted in almost contradictory outcomes. Tribunal judges seem to be looking at claims involving social media on a case by case basis.

Whether a post has extended beyond a specific group now seems to form part of the judge’s deliberations and where a colleague has been offended by a post might not always seen as the fault of the original poster.

Notwithstanding, we should remember that social media is incredibly fast and effective at distributing news on a global scale; and it doesn’t discriminate. With the right connections, anybody can read anything that has been posted by anybody else. This means friends and associates of course, but also suppliers, competitors and customers.

A throw-away comment posted on Facebook or Twitter by an employee may appear fairly innocuous at first, but there is no telling what reputational damage could be done if that employee is connected to a customer, client or colleague who takes offence. Even when made on their own personal accounts, provision should be made in your policy in case comments can be associated with your organisation.

And don’t disregard video. A film that shows an employee flouting Health and Safety regulations for example, whilst being visibly connectable to his or her employer through perhaps, uniform or a branded vehicle, could open the company up to prosecution by the HSE. As well the fallback of bringing the company into disrepute and therefore subject to some form of discipline.

Simply having a policy in place isn’t enough of course. You must make sure it is clear and unambiguous and that your employees are aware of it. You should also be clear of what the consequences will be for contravening the policy.  It might be a good idea to remind employees that your social media policy exists from time to time. Including a reference to it in your staff induction process also makes a lot of sense.

Social media at work will be the hot topic for our forthcoming Employment Law Update breakfast meetings. We’ll give recommendations and ideas for what clauses you should consider including in your policy and also give some guidance on when and when not to use social media during recruitment.

You can book onto our breakfast meetings if you haven’t already done so hereor you can give us a call on 01452 331331.

Describing events at Westminster over the past week or two as turbulent might be considered as something of an understatement. We must allow, of course, for the fact the Government and political parties operate differently to business organisations. However, it’s notable that those who set the laws by which businesses must operate, don’t behave themselves in a way that we might recognise as being business-like.

For example, following a vote in the House of Commons last week, Boris Johnson bluntly sacked 21 Conservative Members of Parliament for voting against his wishes to keep “no-deal” as an option during EU negotiations. Whilst the rebels will remain, at least in the short term, as MPs, they have been expelled from the Conservative party.

In normal business practice, dismissal for “failing to follow a management instruction” is quite acceptable; it is usually regarded as gross misconduct and we have presided over a number of such cases for our clients. In a workplace scenario we would usually expect some procedure to be followed however, such as an investigation, even for a cut and dried case that results in summary dismissal. Failure to follow procedure would usually make a dismissal unfair.

The PM’s behaviour during these events demonstrates a leadership style that we would describe as ‘Autocratic’. We usually see this style of leadership in the armed forces during wartime or the emergency services in a disaster response scenario. It can create an unsettled or anxious environment. An autocratic leader will hold absolute power over a team and often make decisions without consultation.

There is also an element of Transactional Leadership in Mr Johnson’s relationship with his political colleagues. The party rules are clear that the consequence for voting against instructions from the leader is expulsion, so that is exactly what has happened. Despite the potential loss of some big names from the political arena, it’s almost refreshing to see clear and decisive action taken in what is otherwise a theatre of hesitancy.

At HR Champions, we strongly promote the importance of understanding different leadership styles. Indeed, it’s a subject we cover across all of our ILM Leadership training programmes; albeit with a different approach depending upon whether it’s discussed at level 2, 3 or 4.

As individuals, we all tend to have a default leadership style that we adopt in normal situations. These are likely to be modified depending upon the given situation, especially if it involves an element of stress, pressure or tension.  

As well as understanding the leadership styles of our own bosses so that we can behave and act accordingly, it is even more important to recognise our own style of leadership and the effect that is has on our team members. We must also appreciate how stress and pressure affects our own behaviour and try to moderate this so that we maintain a style that gets the most from our team and keeps us in control of the situation.

It will be interesting to see if Boris modifies his leadership style over the coming days and whether or not this helps him to achieve his aims. There can be no doubt he is in a stressful situation, but will he recognise his own behaviour and use this to his advantage? We can only wait to see.

In addition to those already mentioned, other recognised leadership styles the PM might adopt include Bureaucratic, Diplomatic, Laissez-faire, Functional and Transformational. We feature in-depth discussion sessions about leadership styles in each of our ILM Leadership courses which we are currently providing fully funded.

Businesses in Bristol & West of England, Swindon & Wiltshire and Worcestershire can benefit from the funding. To find out more simply call or email us on 01452 331331 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or see further details at www.hrchampions.co.uk

As September approaches, the impending back-to-school feeling isn’t reserved just for the kids. With the workforce back to full strength we can expect a surge of activity, so it’s vital to meet any training and development needs early-on to ensure a fully functioning team. As managers, we need to identify skills gaps so that we can organise appropriate individual training plans which meet the needs of the immediate team or department, and are aligned to the wider organisation’s goals.

Approaching the development of a team presents a number of challenges above those for an individual’s development. Individual strengths and weaknesses need to be considered alongside the different learning styles and personalities. You may consider starting with a simple personality profiling system to help you establish this. We use Belbin Team Roles and this is discussed as part of the content of our Team Member and Team Leader training courses.

When establishing development needs it might help to consider a tiered approach:

• What are the goals of the business? Look at both short and long-term goals including any new projects or contracts that throw up new challenges. Sharing companywide objectives will help individuals understand their own contributions.
• The goals and objectives of departmental teams will be driven by the wider corporate goals, so adequate and appropriate resourcing is key; even if a department is just one person.
• Finally, the individuals within teams need to be equipped to fulfil their own roles and meet their objectives.

We might have to rely on our experience and personal knowledge of individuals when deciding if and what development needs are appropriate. Even when we think we have the right team configuration comprised of individuals with the correct skills, we must continue to set SMART objectives and hold individuals and the team as a whole to account. Regular and frequent reviews and 1-2-1 meetings will establish any shortcomings. If it’s a skills or knowledge gap then this can be remedied with an amendment to the individual’s training and development plan.

Encourage individuals to take the opportunity to identify their own development needs which can then be concurred with your own observations. This will allow them to take ownership and create buy-in.

Remember that different training methods exist which might be appropriate for differing learning styles. As well as classroom based learning, one-to-one coaching can often be effective for specific individual needs. A “buddy” or job-shadowing format can also be a good solution for sharing the experience of existing staff amongst new-starters and colleagues.

Committing staff to external training and development can create its own challenges. Business objectives still need to be met so sending staff on a training course en-masse can’t always be achieved. After years of delivering training for businesses, we have established that one day per week over four weeks works best. The impact of staff absence is minimised, and opportunity is created to apply each day’s learning in the workplace, allowing it to embed before the next day of the course.

Let’s remember to celebrate success also. Attaining an industry recognised standard or achieving a qualification should be applauded and shared with other members of the team. Sometimes the celebration may come simply because a team member has pushed him or herself outside their comfort zone. Maintain sight of the fact however that the ultimate purpose of the development is to enable the individual to meet his or her objectives for company-wide benefit.

Contact us for information about the funded training we have available for businesses in Bristol, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. We’ll also help you conduct a Training Needs Analysis to ensure you maximise the benefit. Call us on 01452 331331 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..